My Question i am wondering: - how can I get the most health benefit out of white tea?I don’t care about the taste *at all*, i *only* care about health. And the idea is that white tea is healthier than water.

So till now I did like this: White tea because it just seems like a better version of green tea, more good stuff in it, less caffeine. I take 100 celsius degree hot water and put it over the white tea. Then I just leave it in there till while I drink the tea (it takes so long the tea is cold). I re-use the old teabag 3 times, I just put it in additionally with a new teabag.

Is this the most healthy method of brewing white tea?

White tea seems to be better than green tea (I can only afford tea from the supermarket, so no 300euro tea for me). I like a good health benefit for the buck.

I plan drinking white tea with a little bit of lemon all the time, just not while eating and a little bit after (then I’ll drink water). Because: - read study that a bit lemonjuice is good to add, helps the green tea-good stuff to work inside body- green tea seems to block protein consumption. Don’t know if it’s enough not to drink green tea while eating and after eating (how long after eating?)

I am thinking about buying some decoffenated green or white tea with real leaves. Cause the coffein is probably the one thing that is not so healthy / not so good for my sleep and makes me feel funny. (Anyone knows a good website to order relatively cheap decoffeinated green or white tea? I am from europe/austria)

greets!

Ps Today I drank some white tea and I began sweating all over the place

whole leaf is likely more healthy then teabags (there have been studies on this)

white tea is pretty affordable, and probably cheaper then teabags if you break it down per cup. Consider 100g of white for $8-20 USD, this will taste worlds better (which in itself may be a 'healing' thing), and be priced about the same as your tea bags.

If you really like the convenience of teabags maybe consider getting a reusable one, then filling with loose leaf when need be. Ebay has some.

I wouldn't worry too much about decaf unless you have heart problems.It's more costly, often tastes worse, and certain decaf processes take away other nutrients from tea besides just caffeine

Ps. I go by the idea of not putting a price tag on my health. Often times when you do gravitate to the 'cheap as possible' route you end up getting old, nutrient depleted goods, grown in large quantity, using/adding things that really detract from the health benefits.

White tea does NOT have less caffeine in it...that is a marketing lie... Silver needles actually has some of the highest caffeine levels of any of the types of tea (minus matcha) and ive certainly gotten pretty high caffeine buzzes off white tea

JonnyTwo wrote:Studies have shown that the longer you steep your white tea the more antioxidants you get, also stating that ultimately you get more antioxidants the more you "agitate the leaves".

Slight thread necro, but I've also read these studies, although likewise I didn't bookmark them or anything.

Cancer.gov has an article that says " The polyphenol concentration of any particular tea beverage depends on the type of tea, the amount used, the brew time, and the temperature (3). The highest polyphenol concentration is found in brewed hot tea..." their reference apparently links to a paper that discusses effect of increased temperature and extraction.

I've seen other studies that also show that caffeine is leeched out first, and then phenolic compounds.

Su et. al. also showed this to be true in multiple papers. However they found decreased radical scavenging capacity in extracts that were continuously boiled for 10 minutes. (does not apply to regular steeping, and this might be specific to Oolong)

Anyway, I often brew for maximum extraction. I brew loose leaf in an extra large mesh in perhaps 500ml water in glass from 100C to ~65C before I drink it.

Some research suggests that, specific to radical scavenging, other types of tea are similar to green/white teas. So while there are other factors involved, that specific one is apparently not maximized in white/green teas.

Additionally, white tea is substantially more expensive than green tea most of the time. I seriously doubt that paying 30%+ more for the tea is going to grant you 30%+ more health benefit. You are probably always going to be getting the best health bang for your buck with the same manner that doctors would suggest eating food... a healthy and consistent variety is best.

I therefore drink a variety of white, sencha, matcha, oolong, and recently obtained some high quality darjeeling.